...Literature Vol. XLV (March 2007), pp. 83–126 A Flat World, a Level Playing Field, a Small World After All, or None of the Above? A Review of Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat EDWARD E. LEAMER∗ Geography, flat or not, creates special relationships between buyers and sellers who reside in the same neighborhoods, but Friedman turns this metaphor inside-out by using The World is Flat to warn us of the perils of a relationship-free world in which every economic transaction is contested globally. In his “flat” world, your wages are set in Shanghai. In fact, most of the footloose relationship-free jobs in apparel and footwear and consumer electronics departed the United States several decades ago, and few U.S. workers today feel the force of Chinese and Indian competition, notwithstanding the alarming anecdotes about the outsourcing of intellectual services. Of course, standardization, mechanization, and computerization all work to increase the number of footloose tasks, but innovation and education work in the opposite direction, creating relationship-based activities—like the writing of this review. It may only be personal conceit, but I imagine there is a reason why the Journal of Economic Literature asked me to do this review. 1. Prologue hen the Journal of Economic Literature asked me to write a review of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2005) by Thomas Friedman, I responded with enthusiasm, knowing it wouldn’t...
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...2 ICTs AND GLOBAL WORKING IN A NON-FLAT WORLD Geoff Walsham Judge Business School University of Cambridge Cambridge, U.K. Abstract This paper rejects the hypothesis of Thomas Friedman that ICT-enabled globalization is driving us toward a flat world. Instead, it is argued that the world remains uneven, full of seams, culturally heterogeneous, locally specific, inequitable, not well-integrated and constantly changing. This argument is supported by an analysis of three areas of ICT-enabled global working, namely global software outsourcing, global IS roll-out, and global virtual teams. The paper then builds on these analyses to put forward an agenda for future IS research on ICTs and global working based on three research themes: identity and cross-cultural working; globalization, localization and standardization; and power, knowledge, and control. The paper concludes that the area of ICTs and global working offers the IS field a major research opportunity to make a significant contribution to our understanding of a set of crucial issues in our more globalized world. Flat world, globalization, global software outsourcing, global IS roll-out, global virtual teams, IS research agenda, identity, cross-cultural working, standardization, power, knowledge, control Keywords 1 INTRODUCTION The changes taking place in the global economy, including those in the burgeoning services component, are the subject of much debate by a wide range of commentators including journalists, practitioners...
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...conversation with a loved one who is 10,000 miles away or keep up-to-date on the stock market with our cell phones. The internet can also improve our health or save our lives. Your doctor may send an X-ray or MRI to another doctor in India or China for a second opinion and have it within hours. “…An Israeli company is making big advances in compression technology to allow for easier, better transfers of CAT scans via the Internet so you can quickly get a second opinion from a doctor half a world away” (Friedman, 2005). Thomas L. Friedman, quoting Craig J. Mundie, a chief technical officer for Microsoft: “‘The Windows-powered PC enabled millions of individuals, for the first time ever, to become authors of their own content in digital form, which meant that content could be shared far and wide’”. Friedman’s book underlines his belief that media has the power to cross cultural gaps, bring people closer together and generally make our lives more convenient as it never has before (Friedman, 2005). Through the worldwide web, endless amounts of information are readily available to us. Yet it is important to consider what the chief technical officer of Microsoft did not say: readily available information does not necessarily mean we are better...
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...International Business What is globalization? G lobalization is a process providing connections between countries, in terms of imports, exports, machinery, education, trade, labor and so on. The main aspect of globalization is financial relations between countries. When considering globalization in economic terms, opening up the boarders of a country in order to free trade, as well as capital flow and labor is crucial. Thomas L. Friedman in his book named “The World Is Flat” defined globalization as a flat world. He says that in this world, people should run faster to stay in place and not fall behind. He states that governments, companies and people have no choice but to adapt to this situation (Friedman). Globalization has had many benefits for countries. It has produced millions of jobs in poor countries, transferred capital from rich to poor countries, and provided opportunities for governments to learn from others how to start the development path for their country. For instance, let’s assume that we have a city and a village separated by a river. By connecting the two through a bridge, all different kinds of trade can take place. The villagers might have a comparative advantage in producing their factor endowment that can be milk, and the city has an advantage in producing tractors. By trading, both parties will be better off. Proponents of globalization believe that this is a positive -sum game. Both enjoy the benefits, and as the whole share grows, the share of each...
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...VISION STATEMENT 4 III. LENOVO SWOT ANALYSIS 6 1. External factors (O- opportunity and T-threat) 6 2. Internal factors ( S- strength and W-weakness) 9 IV. LENOVO STRATEGIC CHOICES 13 V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 14 List of figure Figure | Name | page | 1 | The Lenovo history timeline | 4 | 2 | Lenovo vision statement | 5 | 3 | Porter’s Diamond model | 6 | 4 | Lenovo Porter’s Diamond model | 7 | 5 | Strength in Lenovo’s structure | 10 | 6 | Lenovo CAGE framework | 11 | 7 | Lenovo strategic implementation | 13 | 8 | strategic triangle | 14 | I. INTRODUCTION Thomas L.Friedman reminded to the term "Flat world" as the way to describe to an era of new World economy. Which including the globalization, intense competition, a big market without borders, the variety and combination of cultures in the World (Thomas L. Friedman, 2005; Victor K. Fung, el, at 2007; Ronald Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo, 2006). In fact, The change, updates, innovation and competition in technology industry are taking a level higher, because it happening every days, every hours (Jeffrey T. Macher, David C. Mowery; 2004). Factors impact to success of the company including external factors and internal factors. It closely related to the strategies in pathway of company development. Some things bring opportunities, some things bring challenges, or even make the company go to fail. This essay will provide a insight and explicitly analysis and discussion about internal...
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...------------------------------------------------- Teaching Assistant: TBA Required Text: Oded Shenkar and Yadong Luo, International Business—2nd edition (Sage). ISBN: 1412949068. Course Packet (must be purchased online through the Carmen course site) Course Website: http://carmen.osu.edu Suggested Reading: The Economist (https://www.economistsubscriptions.com/searchstudent/us/) Course Overview and Objectives The world is changing in fundamental ways. First, the development of a truly global market in products, services, capital and even certain types of labor is changing the basic terms of competition for an array of different firms and industries. In Thomas Freidman’s words, “The world is flat.” Second, although firms have operated around the globe for many years, they are becoming increasingly integrated yet differentiated, with tightly coupled but different activities in various locations rather than replicating themselves from place to place. Understanding the interaction between culture, knowledge, and the way businesses coordinate around the world is critical to understanding both the possibilities for and constraints on managing a business in today’s fast-changing economy. In this class we will talk about why trade exists between nations, and why businesses decide to leave their familiar domestic surroundings to build subsidiaries overseas. We will examine actions and strategies of the “multinational enterprise” (global companies like GE, Toyota, and BP) that...
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...Final Research Paper-Multicultural Workforce COMM/215 December 1, 2014 Introduction-Worldwide Telecommunications Company Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations. It is driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology (The Levin Institute, 2014). Indeed, globalization has made our world smaller. As the markets for products, services, labor, and capital increasingly integrate worldwide, we are witnessing the increasing economic, cultural, demographic, political, and environmental interdependence of different locations around the world (Elfrink, 2014). In his book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman perfectly captured the essence of today’s new era of globalization. By flat, Friedman meant that the world is connected. The lowering of trade and political barriers, and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet (Friedman 2005). However, with a more global business environment comes a host of new challenges including managing a multicultural workforce comprised of people with widely differing backgrounds. In a multicultural environment, where the meanings of various behaviors and practices are as diverse as the people demonstrating them, incorrect assumptions could easily lead to miscommunication (Lankard, 1994). The purpose...
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...Wednesday 10:30-11:30 pm, and by appointment Email: ?????@fisher.osu.edu Required Text: Oded Shenkar and Yadong Luo, International Business—2nd edition (Sage). ISBN: 1412949068. Course Packet (must be purchased online through the Carmen course site) http://carmen.osu.edu Course Website: Suggested Reading: The Economist (https://www.economistsubscriptions.com/searchstudent/us/) Course Overview and Objectives The world is changing in fundamental ways. First, the development of a truly global market in products, services, capital and even certain types of labor is changing the basic terms of competition for an array of different firms and industries. In Thomas Freidman's words, "The world is flat." Second, although firms have operated around the globe for many years, they are becoming increasingly integrated yet differentiated, with tightly coupled but different activities in various locations rather than replicating themselves from place to place. Understanding the interaction between culture, knowledge, and the way businesses coordinate around the world is critical to understanding both the possibilities for and constraints on managing a business in today's fast-changing economy. In this class we will talk about why trade exists between nations, and why businesses decide to leave their familiar domestic surroundings to build subsidiaries overseas. We will examine actions and strategies of the “multinational enterprise” (global companies like GE, Toyota, and BP) that...
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...2012 Informative Essay – Draft 1 Humans Contribution to Climate Change Over the past 50 years scientific research has shown the ways in which human activity has caused or contributed to climate change. Research all over the world points to the ways humans have caused climate change: the emission of excessive greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide from human industrial, residential and transportation sources into the earth’s atmosphere, exploding population causing a greater need for ever scarcer resources, and finally producing deforestation, pollution and a catastrophic loss of biodiversity of plants and animals. “We are dumping so much carbon dioxide into the Earth’s environment that we have literally changed the relationship between the Earth and the Sun.” (Gore, p.10) Scientific studies measuring the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been taken on a daily basis beginning in 1958 over the island of Hawaii. After a relatively short amount of time the scientists could see that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was going up at an alarming rate. The pattern has shown that the levels of CO2 have been steadily rising year after year for 50 years. “The pre-industrial concentration of CO2 was 280 parts per million. In 2005, that level, measured high above Mauna Loa, was 381 parts per million.” (Gore, p.37) The level of CO2 is higher than it has ever been in 650,000 years. Scientists have proven that the increased level of CO2 has raised our planets...
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...table of contents Introduction 2 competitive advantage 1.0 2 human resources 2.0 4 technological progress 3.0 5 corporate social responsibility 4.0 6 conclusion 7 introduction| Globalisation in the last decades has attracted much attention and these days the pace and scale associated with the rapid emergence of global value chains as production processes is without precedent. Today more than ever, companies have more options in regards to where and how they produce their products, which target markets and consumers they should approach and how they should communicate with both their suppliers and buyers. Trade liberalization and more open economic policies have facilitated international economic integration and combined with technical advances (mainly in communications and transport) they lower costs and foster globalization further. Companies find the advantages of using various sites and source inputs globally thus becoming increasingly fragmented geographically and that was made possible by information and communication technology which allows the value chain to be sliced in various locations and help reduce costs. As information and communication technology enables the production of various services independent of location, globalization now involves more foreign investment and trade with many service activities becoming internationalized. The need to globalise value chains stems from a number of factors. The desire to become...
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...E-marketing in Vietnam Marketing is one of the important parts in the working process of a company, which is the tool to build the bridge connecting between company and customer. Philip Kotler had affirm that marketing is an essential to the success of every organizations (Kotler, Wong, Sauders & Amstrong, 2005, p. 4) However, in recently, with the global economics crisis, businesses in Vietnam have become stagnate. Many enterprises become struggle to reduce the budget for marketing campaign which will cause different for company to build their brand name. Thank for the development of technology and Internet that open a new effective way for enterprises, which is e marketing. Currently, Vietnam has a prime economic situation for developing and expanding e marketing. Vietnam economy and e-marketing From the beginning of 2012, there were good scenes of the economy of Vietnam; such as, low inflation, stable macro economy, and insured social welfare (Vietnam overview, 2012, para. 1). Nonetheless, the domestic economy also has shown signs of stress. Manufacturing has significantly decreased, causing purchasing power to decrease. The country’s growth rate has been declining since 2011. Fuller (2012) stated that the fundamental problems in Vietnam stems from government policies, which are not effective. An economic downturn have negative effects on many companies, this will ultimately lead to many organization going bankrupt. “20 percent of small and medium-size companies have gone...
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...understanding of business school to effectively address these challenges. In this study we would be carrying out research for gaining an insight into the current trend of business schools through surveys, questionnaire, in-depth interview and empirical methods. Based on the analysis of the data, suggestions would be made for improvement in quality of business education in India. Keywords: Quality of Business education, Challenges, Opportunities. Introduction: Management as a field of study has been developing since 18th century. From its evolution to now, management education has changed drastically. It has developed according to changing needs of the industry. Past globalization and advent of the internet, the world has become ‘flat’ as described by Thomas Friedman. Therefore almost everything is available to almost everyone. Indian management education is majorly influenced by thoughts and practices of western management. As a result, while earlier Indian management institutes offered management courses like marketing, finance and human resource, they have started offering different fundamental courses like Health care, Operations, Supply chain, Information technology and...
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...[pic] 2009 Submitted by: Saurabh Kumar saurabhkumar.in@gmail.com +91 9764 88 3889 Project: Athavaya A complimentary plug-in module for class 5 Introduction “Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.” – Swami Vivekananda This project is intended to bring in light the scope to illustrate ways in which our school education stands and in which direction it should develop. It is not intended to be a coherent historical survey of this field, nor can it claim to be a balanced selection from theorists of current influence and future pathways. For this reason it seems useful here to clarify the lines of thought developed in the contents of this proposal, so that the reader can appreciate the context in which we must put our strategies and sincere efforts. An actual situation will be explored and real life experiences will be taken in, as well as problems, which might be thought more intrinsic to formulation of aims, content, methods (and so on) of a particular primary school education system. In the proposal I wish to create the context, take it through the framework of reasoning the context, bringing out relevance and defining the objective and the way to meet...
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...Definition 3 “…multilevel hierarchies have given way to clusters of business units coordinated by market mechanisms rather than by layers of middle-management planners and schedulers.” “…linked competitive success to doing fewer things better, with less.” Dynamics, Snow C., Miles R & Coleman H. Managing 21st Century Network Organisations, Organizational Winter 1992, pp. 5-20. “Established firms downsized to their core competence, de-layering management hierarchies and outsourcing a wide range of activities. New firms eschewed growth through vertical integration and instead sought alliances with independent suppliers and/or distributors.” Summer Miles, R. & Snow, C. Causes of Failures in Network Organisations, California Management Review, 1992, pp. 53-72 4 Marketers and Distributers Producers Designers Suppliers 5 Globalisation • Competition has reduced all margins; thus, firms must cut costs and improve efficiencies – economies of scale • Strong new players at every stage of the value chain Technological Change and Technology Transfer • Shorter product life cycles • Lower barriers to entry, firms have become ‘stateless’ and can move freely across international boarders • Faster, lower cost communications and computer technologies Deregulation • Legal and policy changes produce uncertainty and increase competition Changing Workforce Demographics • Domestic workforce is becoming more mature, diverse and less well...
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...growth. The latter is estimated to converge to below 1,5% in real terms in the long-term in the EU. Moreover, the demographic changes are expected to have substantial consequences on public finances in the EU. ● On the basis of current policies, age-related public expenditures (pensions, health-care and long-term care) are projected to increase by 4.1 percentage points to around to around 29% of GDP between 2010 and 2060”. The economics of depopulation are dark. At full employment, the real GDP has a good chance of declining due to the insufficient number of workers that cannot provide the productivity needed. United States: “Graying means paying,” a quote from Neil Howe and Richard Jackson in the Washington Post article, “ The World Won’t Be Aging Gracefully. Just the Opposite”(2009). The United States as a nation is graying and the aging population isn’t going to stop anytime soon. The reasons for...
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